Spain's government said it may seek compensation from Germany

Spain's government said it may seek compensation from Germany on the grounds that Spanish vegetable exporters were unfairly blamed for a deadly outbreak of Escherichia coli, as European authorities said Spanish cucumbers weren't contaminated with an aggressive strain of the bacteria that is blamed for the deaths of 17 people in Northern Europe.

The death toll rose to 17 on Wednesday from 16 after authorities determined a German woman's death Sunday was due to an E. coli infection.

The Robert Koch Institute, which is funded by the German health ministry and is tracking numbers for all of Germany, reported 97 additional severe cases on Wednesday, bringing the total to 470 severe E. coli infections and an additional 1,064 less-severe cases.

After several days of tests, the source of the outbreak hasn't yet been found. A strand of E. coli initially found in Spanish cucumbers doesn't match the one causing the outbreak, health authorities in Hamburg, Germany, said Tuesday. Countries including Russia and Belgium have continued to ban imports of some Spanish agricultural products. On Thursday, Russia extended that ban to cover all food imports from the European Union.

Lyubov Voropayeva, spokeswoman for the Russian Agency for the Supervision of Consumer Rights, told the Associated Press that the ban had been imposed immediately for no definite period of time.

The agency's chief, Gennady Onishchenko, told Russian news agencies that this "unpopular measure" would be in place until European officials inform Moscow of the cause of the disease and how it is being spread.

EU Health Commissioner John Dalli said the outbreak seems to be in decline. "The tests that have been carried so far indicate that cucumbers in general, and cucumbers coming from Spain in particular, because they were tested, do not test positively for this particular strain," said Mr. Dalli. "Intensive work is taking place to pinpoint the source of contamination," he added. Mr. Dalli said the EU would look into compensation for farmers who have been affected financially, but that it was too early to give details of how much money had been lost.

Mr. Dalli also stressed that applying normal food hygiene rules, such as washing fresh vegetables, would help protect consumers.

Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba said Wednesday that comments last week by Hamburg authorities that the E. coli outbreak was triggered by cucumbers from Spain or other European countries have resulted in heavy losses for Spanish vegetable exporters.

"In Spain there hasn't been a single case...which indicates the bacteria...is not coming from Spain," Mr. Rubalcaba told Spain's Cadena Ser radio.



He said Spain's government is in contact with EU authorities and is seeking to have the EU lift a health warning in effect since the outbreak began last week.

A farming lobby says Spanish farmers stand to lose as much as €200 million ($287 million) a week if recent measures against Spanish agricultural products aren't removed.

Mr. Rubalcaba also said Spain may request compensation from Germany, but he didn't give further details. In 2010, Spain exported €11.8 billion in fresh vegetables and fruits, accounting for 6.3% of total Spanish exports.Exports had risen strongly through April, the latest data available, as international demand for Spanish products helped the euro zone's fourth-largest economy stave off stagnation.

Hamburg authorities say the city was in the right to warn about the cucumbers, said government spokesman Jörg Schmoll. Even if the strain of E. coli it detected didn't turn out to be the culprit, it could still kill someone, Mr. Schmoll added.

Fernando Marcén, head of Agricultural Cooperatives, a Spanish farmers' group, said the outbreak is endangering 70,000 jobs in the country, which already has the highest unemployment rate in the developed world, at 21.3%. The poorer agricultural regions of Andalusia and Valencia have been most affected, he said.

The withdrawal of agricultural products from the market is also affecting German farmers, who are losing around €30 million a week in sales, according to the German Farmers' Association.

Landgard, a German farm-marketing company that works with 3,200 farmers, says its farmers destroyed half a million heads of lettuce last week. "And that was just the beginning," said Stephan Weist, Landgard's managing director. "These numbers will go up."

Landgard is Germany's biggest tomato producer, with 20% of the market. Lettuce and tomato sales were down between 40% and 70% in May, amid the high season for Germany's farmers, compared with last year. Cucumber sales are down more than 80%, according to Landgard.

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